When A. J. Reeser signed papers to take ownership of the fitness center previously known as the Park Center Club, he realized that he had just taken the biggest financial step in his life. Every asset he could pull together had been pledged against the mortgage. If the new AJ's Fitness Center didn't succeed, he would be in really bad shape financially. But A. J. didn't plan on failing. After all, he had never failed at anything.

As a high school football All-American, A. J. had been heav- ily recruited by major colleges around the country. Although he loved football, he and his family had always put academics ahead of sports. Thus, he surprised almost everyone other than those who knew him best when he chose to attend an Ivy League university not particularly noted for its football success. Although he excelled at football and was a member of two winning teams, he also suc- ceeded in the classroom and graduated in four years. He spent six years working for McKinsey & Company, a major consulting firm, at which he gained significant experience in a broad range of busi- ness situations.

He was hired away from McKinsey & Company by the Dryden Group, a management services company that specializes in running health and fitness operations and recreational resorts throughout the world. After eight years of leading the Fitness Center section at Dryden, A. J. found that earning a high salary and the perks associated with corporate life were not satisfying him. Besides, the travel was getting old now that he had married and had two young children. When the opportunity to purchase the Park Center Club came, he decided that the time was right to control his own destiny.

A key aspect of the deal was that AJ's Fitness Club would keep its existing clientele, consisting of 1,833 memberships. One of the things A. J. was very concerned about was whether these members would stay with the club after the sale or move on to other fitness clubs in the area. He knew that keeping existing customers is a lot less expensive than attracting new customers.

Within days of assuming ownership, A. J. developed a survey that was mailed to all 1,833 members. The letter that accompa- nied the survey discussed A. J.'s philosophy and asked several key questions regarding the current level of satisfaction. Survey respondents were eligible to win a free lifetime membership in a drawing-an inducement that was no doubt responsible for the 1,214 usable responses.

To get help with the analysis of the survey data, A. J. approached the college of business at a local university with the

idea of having a senior student serve as an intern at AJ's Fitness Center. In addition to an hourly wage, the intern would get free use of the fitness facilities for the rest of the academic year.

The intern's first task was to key the data from the survey into a file that could be analyzed using a spreadsheet or a statistical software package. The survey contained eight questions that were keyed into eight columns, as follows:

Column 1:

Column 2: Column 3:

Column 4:

Satisfaction with the club's weight- and exer- cise-equipment facilities

Satisfaction with the club's staff

Satisfaction with the club's exercise programs (aerobics, etc.)

Satisfaction with the club's overall service

Note, columns 1 through 4 were coded on an ordinal scale as follows:

Column 5:

Column 6: Column 7: Column 8:

Number of years that the respondent had been a member at this club

Gender11=Male, 2=Female2
Typical number of visits to the club per week Age

The data, saved in the fileAJFitness, were clearly too much for anyone to comprehend in raw form. At yesterday's meeting, A. J. asked the intern to "make some sense of the data." When the intern asked for some direction, A. J.'s response was, "That's what I'm paying you the big bucks for. I just want you to develop a descriptive analysis of these data. Use whatever charts, graphs, and tables that will help us understand our customers. Also, use any pertinent numerical measures that will help in the analysis. For right now, give me a3 pagesreport that discusses the data.